9/7/13 (Indian Country Today)
The stated mission of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, in Cooperstown, New York, is “to preserve history, honor excellence and connect generations.” It fails on all three counts where Native American players and history are concerned.
For even as its exhibition walls feature portraits of pioneer players and time-lines for Afro- American players, Hispanic players and women players, no such recognition and celebration exists for the American Indian … [Read more...]

By Ed Rice, Special to the Bangor Daily News
From our Colonial period right through to the present day, Native Americans have always been the victims of an intrinsic “institutional racism” in the United States. Or, put more bluntly, it’s always been okay to be flat-out disrespectful.
Don’t think so, huh? Ready to join the gutless, no name-given and no address-given e- mailers who will undoubtedly post their “enough with the political correctness” mantra to this commentary on this … [Read more...]

Perhaps the city of Cleveland and fans of the Indians should be asking the question: Are we in the presence of a baseball curse, one that may be beginning to approach the magnitude of the one that allegedly faced the Red Sox for 86 years and is steadily creeping toward the magnitude of the one that still, allegedly, plagues the Cubs for more than 100 years now?
If there is a curse, it’s deserved.
Already, around the country and here in Maine, people are beginning to talk about the “Curse … [Read more...]

“Forget Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson, put Louis Sockalexis in the Baseball Hall of Fame!”
To hear that truly great master of being disingenuous and champion of using “Straw Man” fallacies — using logic fallacies I’ve cautioned my students not to use on their peers in my oral communications classes for a decade — you’d think that is my position and the Penobscot Nation position, according to Bradford Horn, National Baseball Hall of Fame public relations director.
Of course, if you had … [Read more...]

By Ed Rice, Special to the Bangor Daily News
In a largely admirable July 31 editorial in the Bangor Daily News titled “A Baseball First,” the Penobscot Nation tribe was supported in its efforts demanding respect for Louis Sockalexis from the Cleveland Indians baseball franchise, but that editorial contains the very regrettable line that “the tribe might do well to narrow the focus of its outrage.”
No, it should not! And since more than 137 media outlets all across the country published the … [Read more...]

This story was published on Aug. 05, 2006 on Page D1 in all editions of the Bangor Daily News
On a Bangor baseball field that no longer exists, almost 100 years ago in May 1907, Louis Sockalexis, the first American Indian to play major league baseball, played for the Bangor town team against a club comprised of barnstorming Negro League players from the Philadelphia Giants, reigning champions of the “colored leagues.” The black players, at that time, were not allowed to compete at the highest … [Read more...]

This story was published on April 05, 2004 on Page C1 in all editions of the Bangor Daily News
(Editor’s note: In this final installment of three columns, focused on disrespect to Native Americans in the world of sports and, particularly, to a Maine Indian legend, Louis Sockalexis, author Ed Rice argues his case why Louis Sockalexis deserves to have the title “First Indian” to play major league baseball restored to him. He also implores the Baseball Hall of Fame to recognize, at long last, … [Read more...]

This story was published on April 03, 2004 on Page D1 in all editions of the Bangor Daily News
(Editor’s note: In this second of three columns on disrespect to Native Americans in the world of sports and, particularly, disrespect to a Maine Indian legend, Louis Sockalexis, author Ed Rice discusses how Louis Sockalexis inspired the nickname “Indians” the major league team in Cleveland uses to this day, but is in no way honored by the continuing specter of the racist caricature, Chief … [Read more...]

This story was published on April 02, 2004 on Page C1 in all editions of the Bangor Daily News
(Editor note: This is the first of three columns concerning disrespect to Native Americans in the world of sports and, in particular, disrespect to a Maine legend, Louis Sockalexis, by Sockalexis biographer Ed Rice. In this first column, Rice explores the continuing use of the nickname “Redskins.”)
We live in a curiously impolite era. We know no new sporting team in this country - whether spawned … [Read more...]